year, in the employment of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and of friends in London who were members of the Western company, endeavored to establish a colony, though but of sixteen men, for the occupation of New England. The attempt was made unsuccessful by violent storms.

Again renewing his enterprise, Smith was captured by French pirates. His ship having been taken away, he escaped alone, in an open boat, from the harbor of Rochelle. The severest privations in a new settlement would have been less wearisome than the labors which his zeal now prompted him to undertake. Having published a map and description of New England, he spent many months in visiting the merchants and gentry of the west: he proposed to the cities mercantile profits, to be realized in short and safe voyages; to the noblemen, vast domains; to men of small means he drew a lively picture of the rapid advancement of fortune by colonial industry, of the abundance of game, the delights of unrestrained liberty, the pleasures to be derived from "angling, and crossing the sweet air from isle to isle over the silent streams of a calm sea." His private fortunes never recovered from his disastrous capture by the French; but his zeal for the interests of the nation redounded to his honor; and he retired from American history with the rank of Admiral of New England for life.

CHAPTER VII.

VIRGINIA OBTAINS CIVIL LIBERTY.

THE golden anticipations of the London company from the colonization of Virginia had not been realized, for it had grasped at sudden emoluments. Undaunted by the train of misfortunes, the kingdom awoke to the greatness of the undertaking, and designs worthy of the English nation were conceived. The second charter of Virginia, which, at the request of the former corporation, passed the seals on the twenty-third of May, 1609, intrusted the colonization of that land to a very numerous, opulent, and influential body of adventurers. The name of Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, appears at the head of those who were to carry into execution the grand design to which Raleigh, now a close prisoner in the Tower, had aroused the attention of his countrymen. Among the many hundreds whose names followed were the earls of Southampton, Lincoln, and Dorset, George Percy, Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle to the future protector, Sir Anthony Ashley, Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Francis Bacon, Captain John Smith, Richard Hakluyt, George Sandys, many tradesmen, and five-and-fifty public companies of London; so that the nobility and gentry, the army and the bar, the industry and commerce of England, were represented.

The territory granted to the company extended two hundred miles to the north, and as many to the south of Old Point Comfort, "up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and north-west," including "all the islands lying within one hundred miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct."

At the request of the corporation, the new charter trans

ferred to the company the powers which had before been reserved to the king. The perpetual supreme council in England was to be chosen by the shareholders themselves, and, in the exercise of the functions of legislation and government, was independent of the monarch. The governor in Virginia, whom the corporation was to appoint, might rule the colonists with uncontrolled authority, according to the tenor of instructions and laws established by the council, or, in want of them, according to his own good discretion, even in cases capital and criminal, not less than civil; and, in the event of mutiny or rebellion, he might declare martial law, being himself the judge of the necessity of the measure, and the executive officer in its administration. If not one valuable civil privilege was guaranteed to the emigrants, they were at least withdrawn from the power of the king; and the company could at its pleasure endow them with all the rights of Englishmen.

Lord Delaware, distinguished for his virtues as well as rank, received the appointment of governor and captain-general for life; and was surrounded, at least nominally, by stately officers, with titles and charges suited to the dignity of a flourishing empire. The public mind favored colonization; the adventurers, with cheerful alacrity, contributed free-will offerings; and such swarms of people desired to be transported that the company could despatch a fleet of nine vessels, containing more than five hundred emigrants.

The admiral of the expedition was Newport, who, with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, was authorized to administer the affairs of the colony till the arrival of Lord Delaware. The three commissioners had embarked on board the same ship, which, near the coast of Virginia, was separated by a hurricane from all its companions, and stranded on the rocks of the Bermudas. A small ketch perished; so that seven ships only had arrived in Virginia.

After the departure of Smith, the old colonists, and the newcomers, no longer controlled by an acknowledged authority, abandoned themselves to improvident idleness. Their ample stock of provisions was rapidly consumed, and further supplies were refused by the Indians, who began to regard them with a fatal contempt. Stragglers from the town were cut

off; parties, which begged food in the Indian cabins, were murdered; and plans were laid to starve and destroy the whole company. The horrors of famine ensued, while a band of about thirty, seizing on a ship, escaped to become pirates, and to plead desperate necessity as their excuse. In six months, indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number in the colony to sixty; and these were so feeble and dejected that, if relief had been delayed but ten days longer, they must have perished.

Sir Thomas Gates and the passengers, whose ship had been wrecked on the rocks of the Bermudas, had reached the shore without the loss of a life. The uninhabited island, teeming with natural products, for nine months sustained them in affluence. From the cedars which they felled, and the wrecks of their old ship, they constructed two vessels, in which they embarked for Virginia, in the hope of a happy welcome to a prosperous colony. How great, then, was their dismay, as in May, 1610, they came among scenes of death and misery and scarcity! Four pinnaces remained in the river; nor could the extremity of distress listen to any other course than to make sail for Newfoundland. The colonists desired to burn the town in which they had been so wretched, but were prevented by Gates, who was himself the last to desert the settlement. "None dropped a tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happiness." On the eighth they fell down the stream with the tide; but, the next morning, as they drew near the mouth of the river, they encountered the long-boat of Lord Delaware, who had arrived on the coast with emigrants and supplies. The fugitives bore up the helm, and, favored by the wind, were that night once more at the fort in Jamestown.

It was on the tenth day of June that the restoration of the colony was begun. "Bucke, chaplain of the Somer islands, finding all things so contrary to their expectations, so full of misery and misgovernment, made a zealous and sorrowful prayer.” A deep sense of the infinite mercies of Providence revived hope in the colonists who had been spared by famine, the emigrants who had been shipwrecked and yet preserved, and the new-comers who found wretchedness and want where they had expected abundance. "It is," said they, "the arm of the Lord

of Hosts, who would have his people pass the Red sea and the wilderness, and then possess the land of Canaan.” "Doubt not," said the emigrants to the people of England, "God will raise our state and build his church in this excellent clime." Lord Delaware caused his commission to be read; and, after a consultation on the good of the colony, its government was organized with mildness but decision. The evils of faction were healed by the unity of the administration, and the dignity and virtues of the governor; and the colonists, in mutual emulation, performed their tasks with alacrity. At the beginning of the day they assembled in the little church, which was kept neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country; next, they returned to their houses to receive their allowance of food. The hours of labor were from six in the morning till ten, and from two in the afternoon till four. The houses were warm and secure, covered above with strong boards, and matted on the inside after the fashion of the Indian wigwams.

The country became better known. Samuel Argall, who in the former year had visited Virginia as a trading agent of Sir Thomas Smythe, and now came over again with the expedition of 1610, explored the neighboring coast to the north. At nine in the morning of the twenty-seventh of July he cast anchor in a very great bay, and gave it the name of Delaware.

Security and affluence were dawning upon the colony. But the health of Lord Delaware sunk under his cares and the climate; after a lingering sickness, he left the administration with Percy, and returned to England. The colony, at this time, consisted of about two hundred men; but the departure of the governor produced despondency at Jamestown; "a damp of coldness" in the hearts of the London company; and a great reaction in the popular mind in England. "Our own brethren laugh us to scorne," so the men of Jamestown complained; "and papists and players, the scum and dregs of the earth, mocke such as help to build up the walls of Jerusalem."

Fortunately, the corporation, before the retirement of Lord Delaware was known, had despatched Sir Thomas Dale, "an experienced soldier," with supplies. In May, 1611, he arrived in the Chesapeake, and assumed the government, which he soon afterward administered upon the basis of martial law.